About Our Workshop Leader

Theresa L. Goodrich is an Emmy-winning author and content creator with a penchant for storytelling and a keen eye. She’s the founder and publisher of The Local Tourist and author of the Two Lane Gems book series, with a third book coming soon. Theresa GoodrichTheresa has appeared in several Chicago media, including Crain’s Chicago, the Chicago Tribune, Chicagoist, WGN, WLUP, and WCIU. She was one of the founding bloggers of ChicagoNow, was the Chicago Expert for Answers.com, and is a contributor to 1000TravelTips.com. She’s also spoken on marketing, motivation, and entrepreneurship at several panels and conferences, and was a mentor at the exclusive 2019 Bloghouse conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, and was a featured speaker at the 2019 & 2020 San Diego Travel & Adventure Show and the 2019 Chicago Auto Show. She also led the 2019 Midwest Travel Network’s Writer’s Workshop in 2019 in Hendricks County, Indiana. When she’s not writing or on the road, she’s cooking and planning her next adventure.

About Our Destination

Join us where big skies meet big adventures in Billings and Southeast Montana. This region is the kind of place to slow down and fall in love with Montana. It’s where cowboys still ride horses across the open plains. It’s the kind of place where traces of dinosaur fossils are just waiting to be discovered and history is presently part of the story. Out here, you will be welcomed with an abundance of western hospitality.

Billings serves as the trailhead for the perfect getaway under big Montana skies, by seamlessly blending metropolitan amenities with rugged outdoor exploration that one expects from this region.

In this area, you can spend mornings hiking or biking along the more than 47 miles of trails weaving their way through the city and its southeastern outskirts. Then kick back and sample a few of the craft beers, ciders, or spirits on the Billings Brew Trail. Less than an hour from Billings, the Beartooth Scenic Byway provides breathtaking vistas from start to finish, guiding roadtrippers through the most beautiful entrance into Yellowstone–the nation’s first national park.

What Past Attendees Say

Here is what Amy Piper, of Follow The Piper, had to say about her experience at the 2019 Midwest Travel Network’s Writer’s Workshop.

“The Midwest Travel Network Writer’s Workshop guides you from the initial travel experience (press trip style) through to writing and editing the article. The focus of this workshop is writing for your readers. I learned how to create tension in my articles to move the reader through the experience. It’s a small group, and you’ll not only learn from an award-winning author but also other writers in the workshop.”